I've been Left Behind(ed)!!!
At E3 I was allowed to spend 30-40 minutes with Left Behind Games, makers of... Left Behind: Eternal Forces, the RTS based on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' Best selling series of Christian fiction novels.
Before I go further let me assure you that I will be taking a look at the video game from an objective reviewer's standpoint and put any personal beliefs aside. I took quite a while deciding how to approach this writeup.
I admit I went into this preview with an assumed idea of what the game would be like--bad for a reviewer I know, but it was hard not to. I showed up at the booth and sat down in front of a topdown view of downtown New York. The Assistant Producer Samuel Robinson, spent around 4 weeks in New York photographing every building in the gameplay areas to ensure accuracy. The attention to detail goes from layout right down to textures. And the musical score is amazing. They have pieces arranged by Chance Thomas, composer behind the music for Vivendi-Universal's Lord of The Rings game. Changes between normal music and combat sounds are seamless and actually gets the blood going. It's pretty impressive.
Speaking of detail, EVERY unit in the game has its, or should I say "his or her", own name and backstory... EVERY ONE. All unique and written by Chris Fabry, co-author of the Left-Behind childrens' books. The number of these character histories stretch into the hundreds and the ones I saw were each about three fairly thick paragraphs long, so there's lots and lots of work that has been put into making your units feel like real people. "Too much fluff?" ... maybe, but then if you read one or two of these backstories, the unit that gets shot dead in the street wont be "TerranMarine_34," it will be Paul Griffin, or David Burke, or Brandon Parks. To further emphasize this, dead units remain in their place of death for longer than what you're accustomed to with usual RTS's. The designers very much want to convey a sense that death is real without blood splattering everywhere.
On to what I saw of the actual gameplay... It's my opinion that any RTS can be broken down into thee basic components of gameplay: Mine, Build, and Kill. (as observed and coined by a friend of mine)
So it is from these focuses that I will take my look at the actual gameplay in Left Behind: Eternal Forces.
Mine - As in any RTS, you need to collect resources to play the game. I didn't get the full rundown of resource accumulation and management but money will be collected by gaining control of certain buildings. Spirit is another resource, but seems to be an individual value per unit. To raise your unit's spirit, you allow them to pray. This essentially makes them inactive and raises your spirit total. A high spirit may allow certain special abilities for certain unit types, but a low spirit will allow your unit to be converted by the enemy.
Build - The "build" section of the Left Behind game differs from most. Instead of constructing buildings, you buy existing ones and change them to suit your purposes. This is where you will get your money, train your recruits, and maybe purchase upgrades. Also, recruits move through different levels as they upgrade. For example you may recruit two people standing side by side on the street and train one to be a soldier... next he will become a special forces unit, with another upgrade past that, maybe spec ops. The other recruit could be made a medic, and upgraded through nurse to doctor.
Kill - Aah, combat... this is why we play a RTS right? Eliminate the enemy... but this is a Christian-based game, is the violence really necessary?
Left Behind Games addresses this matter thus:
Violence is not required to make a fun game. However, it is required to make a game about the end of the world in the Left Behind book series. We have taken great care to make certain that there are real consequences for poor gamer behavior, unlike most games in the market. For instance, unnecessary killing will result in lower Spirit points which are essential to winning.
Also, when asked if the killing contradicts the message of love taught by Christ in the Bible, they respond:
Absolutely not. Christians are quite clearly taught to turn the other cheek and to love their enemies. It is equally true that no one should forfeit their lives to an aggressor who is bent on inflicting death. Forgiveness does not require absolute defenselessness.
They describe their violence as "Star Wars violence" in that yes, you see people shooting, getting hit, dying, but they don't have to have blood sprays and dismemberment. This doesn't mean that the combat wont be fun. In the limited time I had with the game I noticed that the units were very responsive and seemed to handle their pathing very well. The combat was smooth, RTS combat, only--as I said earlier--it's a bit more of a personal hit when James Parmer dies fighting for his beliefs instead of Mr. Faceless Marine.
Left Behind: Eternal Forces is slated to release late Q3 to early Q42006. They already have 30-40 missions planned for the game including multiplayer maps where you will be able to play either the "good guys" or their counterparts. It's obvious to me that Left Behind Games set out to make one of the best RTS's on the market, and worried about that first. If they have "ulterior motives," they didn't jump out at me during the time I was there despite my initial skepticism. If you're a fan of the RTS genre, you should probably plan to check this game out regardless of your religious views. I will be.
